The Nile Basin Water Resources Overview Of Key Research Questions Pertinent To The Nile Basin Initiative

The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) is a remarkable achievement towards the cooperative management of the common Nile water resources. Based on a Shared Vision Program and a Subsidiary Action Program, the NBI has numerous ongoing projects on the ground. Research on the Nile water resources has been recognized to be crucial for successful implementation of the NBI projects. Therefore, IWMI and other research centers have worked together with the NBI to identify knowledge gaps pertinent to the Nile water resources. This report presents prioritized research questions, pertinent ongoing research projects and the implementing institutions; and available databases on the Nile.

The Karkheh River Basin is the third largest basin in Iran after Karoon and Dez, and occupies a strategic position on the western boundary of the country. The basin has seen remarkable ancient feats of engineering, and has a long history of wheat and barley production, complemented by horticulture. With the growth of the modern nation-state of Iran, water development has progressed steadily in tandem with rising populations and urbanization. The report aims to understand the historical setting and present situation of water development and allocation, in relation to rural development and agrarian policy. It provides the contextual backdrop for further research on the management of water to improve livelihoods in the basin through integrated and sustainable management of land and water resources. It provides further information on the changes in surface flows out of the component subbasins and looks at the development, use and consequences of groundwater abstraction.

Focusing on mixed crop-livestock farming systems of sub-Saharan Africa, this review brings together the available knowledge in the various components of the livestock and water sectors. Through an analysis of livestock-water interactions, promising strategies and interventions to improve Livestock Water Productivity are proposed. In the biophysical domain, the numerous interventions relate to feed, water and animal management. These are interlinked with interventions in the socio-political-economic domain. The paper identifies critical research and development gaps in terms of methodologies for quantifying water productivity and integrating different scales, and also in terms of institutions and policies.

The aim in this paper was to present the details of an economic modeling exercise conducted on the Musi Catchment of the Krishna Basin. The model has the unique characteristic of being able to value the water used on individual crops and in different regions. Thus, the individual values of water used to produce different crops, grown over two different seasons and over five very different regions within a catchment, were determined. This is a significant improvement over previous attempts, where a single value of water in a catchment was derived regardless of what it is used for, when it was used and where it used in the catchment. In addition to the agricultural valuation process, some account was made for the other uses of water and how they should be valued. The worth of these findings cannot be underestimated as the results are useful to those who need to allocate scarce water supplies between competing uses within a catchment. The assumptions underlying the model, the data used and the results and implications drawn are fully detailed in this paper. This model was connected to a hydrological model and used to simulate various scenarios on the water situation facing users in the basin. This model is the forerunner of similar modeling attempts on similar problems in other regions of the Krishna Basin and in the Murray Darling Basin of Australia.

In Burkina Faso, at least 1,700 small reservoirs have been constructed, most of them during the last 30 years. Numerous and scattered, these beneficial multipurpose systems combine productive with domestic water uses. However, their environmental and health impacts remain insufficiently documented. This report combines data from different sources into syntheses and national maps, with a focus on water-related diseases. The mitigation of negative impacts requires an integrated approach to specifically identify the enhancing and limiting factors that influence environmental impacts and the transmission of diseases around reservoirs. Public awareness campaigns need to accompany the promotion of preventive and curative measures and the development of alternative water sources for domestic supply.

Many farms in tropical countries suffer from droughts in the dry season and sometimes even in the rainy season. In order to significantly increase the capacity to store water, the grassroots Farmer Wisdom movement in Northeast Thailand innovated pond construction on homesteads. This Working Paper first documents how pond water is mainly used to irrigate crops and fruit trees, and is also used for livestock or fish, and for domestic uses, even if ample piped water is available. Households were also found to harvest rainwater from roofs; take water from canals and streams; lift water manually from shallow wells and with electric pumps from deep wells; channel run-off from roads to paddy fields; use precipitation as green water on fields; and buy bottled water. Most households combine at least six of these nine water sources. The second part describes scenarios and some outcomes of a new simulation model, BoNam. This model provides guidelines for the optimal size and site of such ponds according to biophysical factors (weather, soil and crops), socioeconomic factors (prices, availability of labor and off-farm income) and household aspirations.

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has been working in Nepal since 1986 with the objective of undertaking research in water management and to strengthen the research capabilities of concerned government agencies. The research helped to develop appropriate mechanisms for providing support to Farmer-Managed Irrigation Systems (FMIS) and the initiation of participatory irrigation management (PIM). The river basin studies helped policy formulation for integrated planning and management of water resources besides the methodological contribution through the development of appropriate tools for water management studies. It also contributed to enhancing the capabilities of agency officials and local researchers through their involvement in research activities.

Through rapid assessment of existing literature and review of policy and other official documents, the report synthesizes the existing knowledge and gaps on policies and institutions and identifies key research issues that need in-depth study. The report provides an overview of the range of key livelihoods and production systems in the Blue Nile Basin (BNB) and highlights their relative dependence on, and vulnerability to, water resources and water-related ecosystem services. It also makes an inventory of current water and land related policies and institutions in the BNB, their organizational arrangements, dynamics and linkages and key policy premises. It highlights the major problems in institutional arrangements and policy gaps and makes suggestions for an in-depth Policy and Institutional Studies to be done as part of the Upstream-Downstream Research project.